By Logan Churchwell
Breitbart.com
(August 24, 2017)
The six-year saga surrounding Texas’ voter ID law added a new chapter when a federal judge again ruled the law discriminatory against minorities.
On August 23, U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos blocked Texas’ photo identification law on the grounds that recent reforms providing for those without acceptable documents still do not erase concerns that it discriminates against some voters. Texas enacted Senate Bill 5 in 2017, setting permanent a largely court-designed system that allowed individuals lacking proper ID to show alternatives like bank statements, government checks, and utility bills while signing a Reasonable Impediment Declaration indicating a specific reason why they were originally unable to obtain a photo ID. Under SB 5, voters would sign the document under penalty of perjury, where a violation could lead up to two years in jail, if convicted.
Despite endorsing a substantially similar system ahead of the 2016 General Election, Ramos deemed the reforms troublesome as they do not add new forms of acceptable identification.
“SB 5 does not meaningfully expand the types of photo IDs that can qualify, even though the Court was clearly critical of Texas having the most restrictive list in the country,” she wrote. “Not one of the discriminatory features of [the old law] is fully ameliorated by the terms of SB 5.”
Judge Ramos showed particular concern with the perjury provision. The ruling notes that the safety net “trades one obstacle to voting with another—replacing the lack of qualified photo ID with an overreaching affidavit threatening severe penalties for perjury.” The court reckoned that building deterrents into the procedure “appear[ed] to be efforts at voter intimidation.”
